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Saudi Arabia retenders Shoaiba 6 water contract

20 December 2024

Saudi Water Authority (SWA), the kingdom’s main producer of desalinated water, has retendered a contract to build a new water desalination plant on Saudi Arabia’s western coast, using reverse osmosis technology.

When the Shoaiba 6 seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant was previously tendered, Jeddah-based Alfatah Water & Power offered the lowest bid for the contract.

The retendered contract indicates a capacity of between 500,000 cm/d and 545,000 cm/d.

SWA expects to receive bids for the retendered contract by 10 January 2025.

Shoaiba 6 is one of four contracts that SWA has tendered this year using an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contracting model.

The other three SWRO projects are Yanbu 5, Ras Al-Khair and Jubail.

VA Tech Wabag submitted the lowest bid for Yanbu 5 and won the $317m contract to build the plant in September. The plant will have the capacity to treat 300,000 cm/d of seawater.

However, on 16 December, SWA cancelled the contract and informed the bidders that it intended to recalibrate the plant’s capacity and issue a new tender over the coming weeks.

The Jubail and Ras Al-Khair SWRO projects will each have the capacity to treat 600,000 cm/d of seawater.

MEED recently reported that Najran-based Emar Al-Janoub for Contracting (EJC) had won the contract to build the Ras Al-Khair SWRO plant.

EJC offered SR2.346bn ($625.6m) to win the contract, seeing off competition from other bidders including the local Civil Works Company and Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works, and the Saudi branch of India’s VA Tech Wabag. 

SWA is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, with a capacity of at least 6.6 million cm/d. Plants using older and more energy-intensive techniques, such as multi-stage flash technology, account for the majority of the current capacity.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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